ABOUT OUR AUTHORS

White House Historical Association

The late LONELLE AIKMAN was a staff writer for the National Geographic Society. Her books included We the People: The Story of the United States Capitol, Rider with Destiny: George Washington, and George Washington: Man and Monument. She is the author of the first edition of The Living White House.

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS has been described by Newsweek as "the nation's leading presidential historian. He has written several critically acclaimed books, is the NBC News Presidential Historian, and a contributor to The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. He is the author of The Presidents of the United States of America, 18th edition.

ALLIDA M. BLACK is the director and editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers project and research professor of history and international affairs at The George Washington University. Her books include Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism, and Courage in a Dangerous World: The Political Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt. She is the author of The First Ladies of the United States of America.

The late DAVID HERBERT DONALD was the Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of American Civilization Emeritus at Harvard University. He twice received the Pulitzer Prize in biography: in 1961 for Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, and in 1987 for Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe. His Lincoln (1995), which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 14 weeks, received numerous honors, including the prestigious Lincoln Prize.

The late historian FRANK FRIEDEL was the Charles Warren Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and a Harmsworth Professor at Oxford University. He is co-author of The Presidents of the United States of America.

HAROLD HOLZER is one of the country's leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. A prolific writer and lecturer, he serves as co-chair of the United States Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. His book Lincoln At Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President (2004) won the coveted Lincoln Prize. He wrote the introduction to the new edition of Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln.

JOHN HUTTON is a professor of art history at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, He has written and illustrated several children's books, including Alphababel: An Illustrated Tower of Languabets. His Sister Maus and Christmas Maus tell the story of a tiny mouse living in the Single Sisters House in the Moravian town of Salem in the 1780s. Mr. Hutton is the author of The White House ABC: A Presidential Alphabet.

The late MARGARET BROWN KLAPTHOR was curator of the Division of Political History of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. She is the author of Official White House China, and the first nine editions of The First Ladies of the United States of America.

WILLIAM KLOSS has written about the collections of the White House, the U.S. Senate, the State Department Diplomatic Reception Rooms, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. An independent art historian, he has served on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House since 1990. He is the author of Art in the White House: A Nation’s Pride.

ROLAND MESNIER was hired by First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 1979 as head pastry chef at the White House. During his twenty-five-year tenure, he served five United States presidents, royalty, heads of state, and opened the doors of the White House to the best pastry cooks in the country. He is the author of a forthcoming book on White House desserts.

WILLIAM SEALE is an architectural historian and specialist on the restoration and preservation of historic buildings. He has served as consultant on numerous restoration projects including several state capitols and historic houses such as Dodona Manor, the General George C. Marshall House in Virginia, the George Eastman House in New York, and the Old Governor's Mansion in Georgia. He is the editor of White House History, the award-winning journal of the White House Historical Association, and author of The President's House: A History, The White House Garden, The White House: History of an American Idea, and the forthcoming The White House: An Historic Guide (50th anniversary edition).

The late HUGH S. SIDEY was a journalist who covered the American presidency for nearly fifty years, first covering Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 and later serving as Time magazine’s political and White House correspondent. He was chair of the White House Historical Association board of directors from 2000 to 2003. Mr. Sidey is the author of The White House Remembered and co-author of The Presidents of the United States of America.

JANE SHADEL SPILLMAN is curator of American glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. The author of several publications and editor of The Glass Club Bulletin, she has also curated numerous exhibits including "Glass from World's Fairs", "The Queen's Collection: Danish Royal Glass", and "Dining at the White House", an exhibition of presidential glass and china. She is the author of White House Glassware: Two Centuries of Presidential Entertaining.

JOHN WILMERDING is the Sarofim Professor of American Art at Princeton University and visiting curator in the department of American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He contributed to Art in the White House: A Nation's Pride.